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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dave -<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">Replying mostly to Steve's post
about psychedelics /CAW,<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
Thanks for helping spin this fibre into the thread...<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">I was a member of the Minneapolis
Nest of CAW </div>
</blockquote>
<p>It is good to have a first-hand report.</p>
I vaguely remember that _Smith_ might have used the term "Nest"
which for some reason invoke(d/s) the image in me of a "Nest" of
Naked Mole Rats or maybe Snakes more than the kind of comfy "Nest"
I associate with the seasonal needs of brooding and fledging amongst
birds. I was young, the image was new and "extreme" to my
inexperienced apprehension, and I think it scared my "fledgling ego"
a bit too much to imagine being subsumed, even for a presumed
"higher purpose".<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">when I was an undergraduate
student 68-72 and I must confess it was mostly about the sex,
closely followed by struggles to re-define gender/social
relationships/roles when everyone acknowledged, </div>
</blockquote>
The "Summer of Love" was stretched into 4 then? I sometimes
regret/resent not having been a few years older so as to have hit
that era as a young adult rather than a "tween". I felt the
struggle to redefine gender/social relationships/roles a bit more
confrontational. I worked my way through that milieu in as
positive of a way as I could, but there was more than a little
friction and snagging going on around me.<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">"Thou Art God." The "spiritual"
never went much beyond pop, new age, psychology Gaia adoration.
And psychedelics were not part of the equation.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">When I get back home to the US, I
should look up my notes and writings from that time re:
gender/social redefinition - it might be relevant but dated to a
subset of issues that could arise from trans-humanism. How will
we all interact when all of will acknowledge, "Thou Art
Uploaded."<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
I look forward to some fresh chewing of that cud from you. <br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">I have extensive experience with
all of the psychedlics (psylocibin, lsd, peyote, mescaline,
ariocarpus, etc.). Except for my first experience, mushrooms as
I remember, none of the use was 'recreational'. All of the use
was entwined with my pursuit of "mystical" insights via
meditation, yoga, etc. Eventually all of that was subsumed under
the research umbrella of my Ph.D. work in cognitive
anthropology.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a bit divergent (not that that ever slows me down) but I am
not sure I could distinguish my own life-experiences between
"recreational" and "pursuit of the mystical"? I'm not sure what
"play" is if not that for me. And ultimately "play" is "mock
work" or perhaps vice-versa?</p>
<p>I look forward to more of your perspective in this area. In
particular, to your book in the works: <br>
</p>
<blockquote>Culture, Cognition, and Connectionism:<br>
<div itemprop="offers" itemscope=""
itemtype="http://schema.org/Offer"> </div>
Towards an Hermeneutic Anthropology of Mind<br>
</blockquote>
do you have any shorter works on the topic? An essay or article?<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">For me, at a deeply personal
level, a benefit of all this is what feels like an insight into
the myriad, totally artificial, totally arbitrary facades that
have been constructed around issues of epistemology. </div>
</blockquote>
Similarly, I'd be interested in more perspective on those insights.
It isn't clear to me that while myriad that they are totally
artificial and arbitrary... but can agree that what passes for
significant or complete understanding in this area might be only a
glimpse, and then only from a particular perspective. <br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">Corollary to that is the mandated
privilege accorded to rational, scientific, mathematical,
computational "thinking" and "knowing" even when it is evident
that such thinking resolves only the simplest of questions. </div>
</blockquote>
I do find more and more that there are significant limits to a
strict pragmatist or logical positivist approach to perceiving the
universe as it is (if that goal is even a sensible one?). I'm not
fond of the more popular approaches coming from the "Woo" or
"Newage" approach either, so perhaps by letting my confidence in the
former lag, without anything else to stand on, I'm risking being
left adrift. Or perhaps that state has it's own charms?<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91afade6-0e22-4cf1-9aa6-64e9f7cd62a1@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;">As our friend was always saying at
FRIAM, "ah, but it is more complicated than that."<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">Molly, I have found, is most
useful when it forces us to confront the artificial boundaries
and limitations that all of us adopt vis-a-vis interpersonal
interaction. In the CAW nest, a culture of
exploration/questioning/permissiveness existed that allowed the
struggles to redefine mentioned in the first paragraph. Absent
such a culture, Molly, in a guided context can allow similar
questioning.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm not experienced in the same way you are, but I feel I have
felt/seen/tasted said artificial boundaries and limitations. <br>
</p>
<p>When I read Stephenson's _Diamond Age_, "the Drummers" felt a bit
too much like what I remember expecting the CAW "Nests" evolving
into. I fear that some of my apprehension of these alternatives
might be colored (in a bad way) by the anti-drug anti-hippy
propoganda of my youth (e.g. _Reefer Madness_, _Maybe I'll Come
Home in the Spring_).</p>
<p>I hope Amsterdam in the Spring is suiting you well!<br>
</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
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